Community-focused posts
There are 776 posts filed in Raleigh (this is page 34 of 78).
I found a video taken by Kyle Martens of the Improv Everywhere Raleigh MP3 Experiment at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences Nature Research Center grand opening Friday evening.
There’s lots of video of the Turners in this video, particularly around the 13 minute mark. Thanks, Kyle!
I happened to see in Friday’s paper that there would be one of Improv Everywhere’s MP3 Experiments happening in Raleigh as part of the grand opening of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences’s Nature Research Center (NRC). I pitched it to Kelly, who agreed that the kids would have a blast with this. So, we hopped on our bike and rode downtown to join the fun.
The instructions were on the Improv Everywhere website and boiled down to this:
Another missing grounding wire
I reached out to a contact I have at Progress Energy about the thefts of copper wiring from my neighborhood’s utility poles. Marty Clayton, Community Relations Manager, called me back today and told me the utility has had other reports of this crime and would send someone out to evaluate the damage in my area. He said these thieves are taking their lives into their own hands with these thefts, going so far as to break into live substations.
I spent some time today before and after work, tagging some of the damaged poles with red marker tape. I’m finding that about one out of every two poles I check has its copper missing, and some of the missing pieces are only two feet long.
Why would someone put themselves and surrounding neighbors at risk just to steal five bucks of metal? I just don’t get it.
This pole on Edmund Street is not protected against shorts and lightning due to a clipped grounding wire (lower left).
I sent out an email to the neighborhood, urging folks to call in any other broken poles they saw. While I didn’t hear back from my neighbors, I did check the poles on Glascock as I drove to the grocery store this afternoon and saw many poles in the same sad condition.
I don’t know when these thefts took place but it makes me angry that some metal-thieving asshat is jeopardizing the safety of my family just to make a few measly bucks. If lightning hits a utility pole within a few blocks, my home could burn down because of these missing grounding wires.
This is a serious safety issue and there’s no telling how hard Raleigh has been hit. I’m hoping these get discovered before people find out the hard way that their homes are sitting ducks for lightning.
(As pure coincidence, WRAL ran a story today about these utility pole copper thefts occurring in Wayne county.)
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| Raleigh Tornado, 16 April 2011 |
It was a year ago this past Saturday, 16 April 2011, when the deadly EF3 tornadoes roared through Raleigh, damaging over a thousand homes and killing three people. While the lives lost can never be replaced, the homes are returning to normal. The East Raleigh neighborhood of Lockwood held a celebration of the anniversary on North King Charles St this past weekend.
I never posted all of my photos from that devastating day last year, so here’s a link to my Picasa album documenting the damage only minutes after it occurred.
Also, check out the Google Maps satellite imagery of the neighborhood, showing before and after photos. It will be a long while until these neighborhoods regain their leafy shelter.
The Charlotte Observer reported this week how a man was robbed of money after he posted an ad seeking a car on Craigslist:
Similar “robbery-by-appointments” have become a growing problem since classified ad websites like Craigslist have become popular online sources to buy or sell anything from pets to electronics and cars.
Of course, nowhere does the Observer mention that this is not a problem inherent to Craigslist. The same crime could’ve been set up from a flyer stapled to a neighborhood bulletin board, a notice posted in a library, or even (gasp) a classified ad placed in the Charlotte Observer! A commenter on the story also calls the paper out:
Did this type of activity just never occur with newspaper classified ads?
Sure it did, but you don’t think the paper would bash itself, do you?
Look, I get that the newspaper industry has an axe to grind against Craigslist, blaming it for the massive loss of classified advertising. The truth, though, is that the rise of the Internet killed classified advertising. If Craigslist hadn’t done it, some other company would have.
Ads are ads, no matter what the medium. They connect strangers seeking a transaction. Just because someone using Craigslist experienced a crime doesn’t imply that newspaper advertising (or any other kind of advertising) is any safer. Spinning this as a Craigslist-only problem is disingenuous.
Hallie and Travis pose with Officer J.A. Kryskowiak, July 2010
Police are in my neighborhood and I couldn’t be happier about it. You see, they’re not leaving to go on another call, they live in my neighborhood. I know of at least two officers who’ve chosen to call my neighborhood home.
Why is this so great? Because as I learned on my ridealong a few years ago, no one knows neighborhoods like cops do. Cops like to live in places that have don’t have crime. Like everyone else, cops like to “leave it at the office” when they’re off duty. They want time when they can relax and just be themselves. And, any criminals thinking of committing a crime are going to think twice when they see a police car ont he street.
When an officer I know asked if there were any available homes in my neighborhood, I knew my neighborhood was in good shape.
News and Observer reporter Matt Garfield wrote a captivating article about the Devereux Meadows site one day being a park again after 30 years as a trash truck parking lot.
It reminded me of Leo Suarez’s look back at the old ball park from two years ago.
RALEIGH — An expanse of land just north of downtown moved closer to a greener future this month when the city began relocating a sanitation and fleet yard to a new home outside the Beltline.
The land, which has spent the past 30 years as a parking lot for garbage trucks, is envisioned as a park and greenway that supporters hope will enliven an aging gateway into downtown.
Called Devereux Meadows, the planned 15-acre park takes its name from the minor league ballpark that once anchored the site along the west side of Capital Boulevard between Peace Street and Wade Avenue.
via Land once home to Raleigh baseball field now eyed for urban park – Wake County – NewsObserver.com.
Mrs. Kravitz
I love my neighbors and would do anything for them. It doesn’t matter who they are, what they look like, how much money they make, or anything. It doesn’t even matter if they don’t see eye-to-eye with me. If you’re my neighbor, you’re my people. It’s as simple as that.
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Evelyn Contre (boardmember) and Dan Sargent (Director) of Rebuilding Together of the Triangle
Mr. Snipes, a Navy veteran of the Vietnam era, had a tree fall on his home by last year’s tornado and his insurance didn’t cover all the costs of fixing it. For 11 months his home has been covered by a tarp. Mr. Snipes’s roof and air conditioning needed replacing, too. His home had no insulation and for the past two years he heated his home with electric space heaters.
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